What the tweet … ?

Where the Twitter are you?

If I’m organising a networking event I like to connect people on Twitter before they get in the same room and its too late.

It’s quick and easy and saves that gulp awful hiatus when everybody is eyeing each other up and wondering whether to get chummy or run for the hills.

I like that.

It saves a lot of angst.

Why is Twitter so good for networking?

Because you don’t need to be “friends” or have permission to connect.

Because you can see in an instant what people are interested in, other than business.

Because you can get their sense of humour (or lack of).

Because you can see if they are helpful, useful people to know or purely self-promoters.

Because you can use a hashtag that makes it easy for people attending your events to connect and continue the conversation, e.g., #DriveTheNetwork

Because their profile picture should help you to recognise them when they walk into the room.

Take the cheese out of following up

Following up with someone you’ve met can be tricky. The cheesy e-mail, the cold call, adding people to your newsletter list without their permission – yuk!

Following up on Twitter is easy, non-invasive and fun. You’ve got things in common – share pics of the event, include other attendees in the conversation, look forward to the next one.

That’s how relationships are built.

That’s how trust is build.

That’s networking in the 21st Century.

It works like a dream when you know someone’s Twitter name!

Is finding your Twitter name harder than finding a hipster without a beard?

I spend way too much time looking for people’s Twitter names on their websites.

Some are buried on the contact page, some aren’t there at all.

Some are confused with social sharing buttons. (The difference is, if I click a share button on your page or post it goes to MY social channels, not yours, and I’m still no wiser about how to find you.)

Get wise and make it easy for people to find you, connect with you, maybe even like you (or run for the hills and save you both a lot of time!)

If you need help with using Twitter for networking (not for marketing -don’t get me started), just give me a shout@AnnHawkinsor ann@annhawkins.com